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You've been framed by Google's Street View
Mark Prigg, Technology Correspondent20.03.09
GOOGLE today removed dozens of pictures from its new Street View service because of privacy concerns.
Areas of London have been "blacked out" leaving a blank screen after complaints from homeowners or pedestrians captured by Google's cameras. Images removed include several homes, and one picture showing a man emerging from a sex shop in Soho.
Street View contains millions of pictures of London and other cities, allowing users to zoom in on homes, sometimes even through windows. One image which has been removed is of a man vomiting outside a pub in Shoreditch. The screen now just says: "This image is no longer available." However, by changing the position from which the scene can be viewed, the Evening Standard was easily able to view the man being sick from a different angle. Another image of a man being arrested in Camden is still available.
A Google spokeswoman said: "We cannot give out numbers for the complaints we have received but we are dealing with them and blacking out the images within hours. We know the service is not perfect, but we are relying on users to tell us where there are problems. We are happy to remove any images people are not happy with."
The service, launched 24 hours ago, has already been hugely popular. Google said that "hundreds of thousands" of viewers had tried the site and figures from monitoring company Hitwise show that yesterday was the Google Map site's busiest day in the UK and the 20th most-visited site overall. Google Maps UK received 1 in every 250 UK internet visits.
At yesterday's launch the company pledged to blur all faces and numberplates using special software. However, a Standard investigation found dozens of recognisable faces and clearly visible registrations today. A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office today said it will investigate any complaints.
"The ICO is satisfied that Google is putting in place adequate safeguards to minimise any risk to the privacy or safety of individuals," he said. "Individuals who have raised concerns with Google and who do not think they have received a satisfactory response can raise that concern with the ICO."
Google's Ed Parsons accepted today that the blurring "sometimes does not work completely" but insisted that it was 99.9per cent effective.
The internet giant is already facing a threat of legal action from human rights campaigners and Tom Brake, MP for Carshalton and Wallington, called today for the Government to take action over the service. The Liberal Democrat will be writing to ministers and said: "I have no problem with people who want their home on this. But it should be opt in."
Google has also admitted having hidden several surprises around London - a "Where's Wally" character in Putney High Street and several life-sized Paddington Bears.
Reader views (39)
These days I often question the benefits of some applications of Information Technology. Google who do you think you are, not everyone wants their house or themselves on the internet, blurred or otherwise.
- Cel, London
I think it's a fantastic tool that enables the user to viualise and plan routes more easily.
How hilarious these howls of derision from the paranoid privacy brigage. Get over yourselves! What is it that you think you're doing thats so interesting that people should want to look at your blurred out face?
- Dave, London
This is a good initiative. Google is also commended on its willingness to address complaints. Bravo
- Tunde Oladunjoyelo, Ijebu Itele, Nigeria
Do these people who are complaining have "exclusion" zones around their homes. Do they have "exclusion" zones around themselves so they do not get picked up on CCTV cameras several times a day just walking down the street. The Google website is not a webcam, it is just a photograph of a street that anyone can see when walking down the street at any time. It is invaluable when wanting to purchase a property because it enables one to walk around an area before actually going there.
- Patricia, LONDON
wished google had told me they were on their way i'd have given the car a good clean
- Linda, London
It's sad that those who seem to thrive on conspiracy theory, and fear of everything, around them have contrived to mess up the great resource that is Google Street View.
It's a real boon for local and family historians - you can find a house that an ancestor lived in, or at least see if it is still standing, without having to travel. How green is that?
Burglars don't need these one-off photographs to assist them in their criminal intents and acts.
The photos will also assist potential house purchasers and the house market needs all the help it can get.
Those who feel their wrong-doing might be captured on camera need to think: would it be better to not do wrong. It's simple.
Let's see all of Google Street View for London back up and running next week.
- Lester May, London
"My Google Street image has a man with a ladder at my front window , my builders exterior painting last autumn . It'd give anyone ideas about burglary & I want it blocked !
- Hurricanheidi, Welling Kent"
Is this the silliest comment of all time?
Also, if frames are removed at the request of the householder, let's all go and take a photograph of it and put it on a website.
The US has had this for a year at least, and they had all the same whingers as here. They've since moved on. You lot should do the same.
It's great fun, unless you try going from Hampton Hill to Teddington using it. What a strange route they took, leaving some odd gaps.
- Martin Watson, Teddington
My Google Street image has a man with a ladder at my front window , my builders exterior painting last autumn . It'd give anyone ideas about burglary & I want it blocked !
- Hurricanheidi, Welling Kent
There isn't any need for any George Orwell brigade
(according to Jock form London) to be moving on
anywhere. As he had already “moved” by himself in
1949. No doubt you would have “have a laugh” as well
at what he said then. Only difference is, he’d been proved to be right.
- Rwello, Bihar, India
whinge whinge whinge! These remarks about helping terrorists and burglars are ridiculous - as all they have to do is go to the place if they want to case it - and the privacy issues are really stupid as well because anyone can be on any of the streets at any time of the day and have the right to be there... and photograph it whatsmore! No-one is looking at anyone's private affairs, its pictures of public spaces.
And its extremely useful for finding your way around - getting landmarks and so on. Wonderful idea.
stop whinging and get on with it - find something worthwhile to get upset about.
- Daniel Johnson, fulham, UK
I hate being watched from the sky or from anywhere. Nor do I want my house on line. Especially without my permission. This is not a fun game, this is spying on us,
don't you realise ?
- John Smith, London , England
I've been taken to task for taking photos in a various places including Shopping Centres, views from muli storey car parks, Heathrow Airport, London Underground Railway Stations and the latest being told not to take photographs from the public viewing gallery of the OXO building on the South Bank. Why are so many people so touchy when it comes to having their photograph taken, what have they to hide? Strangely this is the only country in the world where I've been told not to take photographs. I've happliy gone around taking photographs in many Cities in the EU, in various locations around the USA and even in the Peoples Republic of China yet in the people get so tetchy. All I can say is Google, carry on with what you're doing, if you catch someone doing something they shouldn't then so be it. After all we are all caught on security cameras every day by the state and we let them do it. Welcome to the Free World.
- Roy, Watford
It is great fun,, as an ex-pat I have visited all the house I have owned in the past 50 years, Florida USA
- Stan Shaw, DeLand Florida USA
Did Google need to get permission from anyone before they started filming London? If so, who gave this permission?
- Anon, London
The government does this every day. The UK is the capital of CCTV usage. The rest of the world is not far behind. With Freedom of Information types of legislation it is possible to get copies of government CCTV tapes. This results in the same situation as Google Street View.
- Dwight, Jacksonville USA
How long before the Home-Office equip unmarked vans with upgraded equipment and use them in a similar way to congestion charge spy vans?
- Ian, Cranbrook, Kent
I have used Google Earth and found it a very useful means of finding streets and places which are unfamiliar. I am not interested in the street views.
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK
Having played with it I can now see that combined with Google, 192 and Facebook, it's great for stalking!
If I was a terrorist I'm sure I'd find it handy, too.
- Roz, Chamonix, France
This is absolutely rediculous idea. It means our privacy s gone in a democratic country. I think no one would dare to do this in a developing country. We have our own private lives and if google cameras are roaming in the streets then obviously there will be several people in it. No matter how much you obscure the faces still people could recognise. I hope google should spend their money on some useful things.
- Mohammad, Hayes
Have to laugh at all those up in arms about Google Street View.
The images are static, and most faces, car number plates, etc. have been blurred out. Besides, once you step out of your front door, and into the street, you're in a public place - therefore there's no privacy invasion.
It's high time the George Orwell brigade moved on...
- Jock, London
Yes of course privacy is an issue....however the technical advantages of using those internet tools are so big (just think of the potential in commerce & trade,- eg refurbishing buildings in the specific case of google earth-, & also education matters) that the advantages quite outweight disadvantages..I agree with John those views save a lot of money..of course risks exist too; what about designing a software that identifies better the profile of the internet user (at least for those "high-tech tools")?An other good idea would be to build a better "ethical/responsible"use in the avarage internet user.After all those tools are designed to help mankind;we all have an interest,if they are propely used..
- Andre, CH
Google,
If these pictures are going to be open to all and the general public, what about the terrorists who will probably use it. You've just made their work a lot easier, thanks a bunch. When another one of their devices goes off, the victims will know who to sue...
- Steve, london
Grant - aside from the fact that I, personally, do object to CCTV and government held records (and their regular security breaches where they lose data) the difference here is that absolutely anyone with access to a computer can see the images.
- Andy, London
These streetscapes are incredible, Google should be commended for this. I am very interested in architecture, history, cities etc and this is a wonderful tool. I can visit cities and wander the streets and see so much without having to pay a fortune in air fares etc. and use up vacation time. Obviosuly there is much more to a place than visual images, but this is a great help. I appreciate there are some privacy issues, but cctv monitoring has been around for years (this is not thay type of surveillance) and the photos are from the public domain and unless there is a demonstrable security type issue I see nothing wrong in all these streescapes being available to the world. I look forward to more cities becoming similarly accessible.
- Johnw, Ottawa, Canada
There seems to be little objection to Londoners being photographed hundreds of times a day by CCTV cameras and by people in the streets; or to the government's proud boast that it intends to keep records on every phone call we make, every website we visit and every email we send, every day of our lives.
And yet having blurred photos of London streets on the net is the end of civilisation as we know it? I just can't understand the fuss.
- Grant, London
Mike Burton - It is NOT illegal to take photographs of policemen.
I don't see what all the fuss is about. If I took a photograph of your street and posted it on the internet, that would be perfectly legal. All Google have done is massively scaled it up to cover the whole city.
- Dave Murray, West London
I've just used it to check out my route to a pub in Wandsworth where I'm going tomorrow. It was quite handy actually.
- Isabel, Woking
What if I don't want EVERYONE to know that my house is ugly? People who know my address might not bother to come and see my house from the outside, but if it's available online, free and quick...
Must EVERYONE know EVERYTHING about EVERYONE?
Why?
- Rollo, London
It is true burglars can walk down streets but with this they can cover a much larger area in a very short period of time and then highlight roads worth looking at in reality [areas that they might not have previously walked in or considered without this]
- Anon, London
Thank you Vision Aforethought, I couldn't have put it better myself. I'm sure lots of people are having affairs, or getting up to things they shouldn't, bet their pleased about Street view as well! It's a total invasion of everyone's privacy.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
Mike Burton - There is no specific law that prohibits photographing police officers. There is rather vague and ill understood law that prohibits taking photographs of law enforcement officers, members of the armed forces and members of the security services that may prove useful to terrorism.
It is a law so poorly determined as to be either a useless article of legislation or a blunt instrument for the above mentioned people to mask their insecurities, fears and lack of understanding of their own jobs.
Needless to say, it is a law that is most frequently used against people who find the idea of terrorism to be both frightening and abhorent.
- Andrew Rodgers, Swindon, UK
I love it, there are lots of benefits, remember it is just photographs taken on a particular day, not a permanently updating process, so you are not being spied on. You can look at the area round a hotel you are staying in, get an idea about a house you are thinking of buying, get an idea what a shop front looks like to make it easier to find it, etc., etc. I know some people won't like it, but I think it is a great advancement and one of the things the Internet should be for. Now spy cameras in public places, that is a different matter.
- Graeme Brown, Austin, Texas, USA
I thought that we were now prohibited from taking photographs of policemen. Is Google exempt from this law?
- Mike Burton, London
Googles street view is the first step in having live cameras on every street in the country, watching and following your every move from home to work and back again.The government wants it to suceed , you will not see them putting up much of a fight to protect us and prevent its use because they want to have control of it.
- Mr S.Port, London
Has anyone asked what the point of this application actually is other than snooping at your bosses house?
- Penny Pincher, London
You would think, would you not, that privacy concerns would have been an important issue for Google at the outset? The corporate clots have it again.
- David, London, UK
People are worried about strangers viewing their homes? So when I drive down their road I have to cover my eyes?
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
All this concern about Google is quite silly. Any member of the public is able to take exactly the same pictures and host it with even more information about date, time, location and circumstances on any of a million websites around the world and the subjects of the photos or owners of properties in question would have basically no recourse to have those pictures removed or have their faces or license plates blurred.
The concern about burgulars using the website is also ridiculous. The same burgulars are perfectly able to walk down any of those streets, recording their observations with no one bothering to question them or stop them from doing so. Are we then going to ban people from walking down streets if they are of a criminal inclination?
Sometimes it seems like Britain needs some nannying to stop from being so disturbingly stupid.
- Andrew Rodgers, Swindon, UK
I posted a similar comment on a tech blog the other day. The problem with Google is that despite their brilliant technology, like many young upstarts, the company is run by people who are too young to comprehend common sense ethics. The difference in attitude to privacy and other priceless matters between the generations is both fascinating and worrying. The solution is a global (UN sponsored?) law to govern the individual's right to privacy. Companies AND individuals should be made to seek a license before they can publish information that may be deemed private.
BTW, on a related note, the reason that the young do not value privacy is thanks to the appalling celeb and big brother culture. We once again reap what we sow. Oh dear.
- Vision Aforethought, Oxford & London
